Most patients in health care facilities are able to achieve sufficient caloric intake through eating prepared meals. However, a sizeable number of patients are unable to orally ingest foods due to conditions such as facial injuries, esophageal injuries, or unconsciousness. In response to this problem, liquid foods have been developed for enteral feeding. Enteral feeding often utilizes a feeding tube which passes through a patient's skin into either the stomach or intestine. It is important to secure such a feeding tube in place and this may be accomplished through a combination of retaining members located internally and externally of the patient. There is provided in accordance with the present invention an external retaining device which solves several problems which are present in prior art retaining devices which will be described herein with respect to the drawings which form a part of this specification.